senate Bill S. 3330

Should 60 Votes in the Senate Be Required to Reform Medicare or Medicaid?

Argument in favor

Medicare and Medicaid provide crucial access to healthcare for some of America’s most vulnerable citizens, and they shouldn’t undergo significant reforms without a supermajority vote in the Senate. This bill wisely curbs the use of reconciliation.

Argument opposed

The budget reconciliation process exists to make it easier for Congress to make necessary but politically challenging reforms to the nation’s tax code and mandatory spending programs like Medicare and Medicaid. Its use shouldn’t be curbed.

Bill Data

What is Senate Bill S. 3330?

This bill — the Medicare and Medicaid Protection Act of 2018 — would require 60 votes in the Senate to make changes to Medicare or Medicaid, effectively preventing the budget reconciliation process from being used to modify the programs. Specifically, 60 votes would be required to raise the Medicare eligibility age, privatize Medicare or turn it into a voucher system, block grant Medicaid or impose per-capita spending caps on state plans, or to reduce the ability of states to provide health coverage under Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion.

Impact

Medicare and Medicaid; and the U.S. Senate.

Cost of Senate Bill S. 3330

A CBO cost estimate is unavailable.

More Information

“For the past 53 years, Medicare and Medicaid have provided a crucial lifeline to hundreds of thousands of Hawaii residents who rely on these programs to access health care and long-term nursing care. But over the past year and a half, Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans have tried to gut Medicaid. They began threatening so-called ‘entitlement reform’ — code for Medicare cuts — to rein in debt and deficit even before ramming through budget busting tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and corporations. This legislation would protect Medicare, Medicaid, and the millions of Americans who depend on these programs.”

This legislation has the support of 15 cosponsors, all of whom are Democrats.

Medicare and Medicaid Protection Act of 2018

Official Title

A bill to protect the Medicare and Medicaid programs with respect to certain changes in reconciliation legislation.

It’s beyond reason that we have talked about this issue for 20+ years , if not more.
Why would increasing a democratic benefit that has benn mismanaged for 50 years possibly get better.
Eliminate the fraud created by illegal aliens and American citizens and then we can talk.
Stop-throwing my money for your votes. You wolf in sheep’s clothing